You are invited to examine where you might be resisting God's leadership or grumbling against His authority in your life. By choosing to trust and surrender today, you will find the true freedom He promises. Let go of the need to control and step into the vision He has prepared for you.
Amen. Wow. *Lord Jesus*, we thank you and we honor you. Lord, you are the king of kings. You're the best leader of all, and we follow you.
And it's a it's an honor to get to be a part of your body, this local aspect of your global body of Christ. What a joy it is, and we we pray not just for our church here, but also for all of the churches, Lord, in Pinellas County. We pray that the church would be a unified and spotless bride. Lord God, that's how you see her. And Lord, I pray that we grow in unity and and grow to look more like that day in and day out.
We pray for revival. In Jesus' name, I pray. And everybody said? Amen. Amen.
You can be seated. Thank you. You guys honor well. I have to say, it is a joy to get to be your pastor. My name is David John Phillips.
I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There is no place I'd rather be. There is nothing that I'd rather be doing. And I'm just so thankful that 8 years ago, 8 and a half, God, well, 9 years ago, God told us, 8 and a half years ago, God sent us here to plant a church, my wife and family. And 7 and a half years ago, we started as a body.
And it's been an amazing 7 and a half years. We've learned a lot. And I promise in Christ, the best is yet to come. Amen? We're just getting started.
Those of you that are in his kingdom, right, you've given your life to Jesus, you've just surrendered to his lordship, you go from "glory to glory", and that's a process of development. That is beautiful. And so, speaking of development that is beautiful, our band. Man, I'm so thankful for the worship band, the team. I mean, just getting to encounter the presence of God through worshiping him together in *unity* as led by a team that lives it out and is learning to live it out all the more with music that I like.
I like our music. I think it's great. And I mean, I'd I'd listen to this all the time. And I do. A lot of the same songs I listen to all the time.
And so I'm just very thankful. My wife is leading the team, and I'm a little biased, but she's the best worship leader ever. She's cute too. She is. Anyway, I'm I'm excited about the message today, and I don't know if nervous is the right word.
Just because there is a lot that I wanna communicate to you today. This is a message that God put on my heart. It actually was next in line in the Corinthians series. We're in the Corinthians series, by the way. It was it was next in line in the Corinthians series about a month and a half, 2 months ago.
And just didn't feel like the Lord would let me preach it yet. But today is the day, and so I'm excited. I'm gonna give you a bit of a review to bring you back into where we left off in the Corinthians series, and then we'll dive in to the aspect that we intentionally skipped to move to Christmas and other things that God was doing, vision Sunday. But now we're we're back in the Corinthians series, and it's gonna be fun. You guys ready?
Alright. So, we're listening to you. Our eyes are on you. Your word says the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. So any area of our heart and mind that is still blinded by unbelief, would you stretch us, challenge us, *Lord*, and and just take that away, take the scales off of our eyes so that we could walk in the freedom of the truth.
*Lord* God, that we would hear truth from your word that's backed by your word. Stand in it and remain in it and experience freedom because our life knows the truth. Lord, I just thank you, Father, for your goodness. *Holy Spirit*, we ask you to move. That this you would move and and as we talked about in worship that you would unveil the the spirit of *wisdom* and knowledge and understanding so that we can grow in this with our lives.
And everybody said, amen. I do recommend that if you ever get to preach, just say and everybody said, and everybody says amen. It's just kinda cool. Alright. *1 Corinthians-10*.
This is where we left off. A little bit of review quickly. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact. Ignorance is not knowing. Not he's not saying, I don't want you to be dumb.
He's just saying, I don't want you to not know. People perish for a lack of knowledge. So what you don't know destroys you. So Paul wants you to know, so do I. I wanna know.
*Lord Jesus, I wanna grow. I wanna seek your kingdom* first and your righteousness. I wanna seek to understand. David wrote in Proverbs, in all you're getting, get wisdom, get knowledge, get understanding. Like, we go after it.
We seek it. It's important. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses, into the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, they all drank from the same spiritual rock that was Christ. They all experienced God's presence. The theophany is is what we call it.
The manifestation of God. The the cloud by day, and fire by night. They saw the presence of God. They experienced the manna from heaven. And yet, many of them, most of them perished in the wilderness because God was not pleased with them.
Just because they were in the congregation, just because they experienced the presence of the Lord, that was an overflow of God moving in response to Moses' faith, and Joshua, and Caleb. See without faith, *Hebrews-11:6* says, it is impossible to please God. God was not pleased with them, which means despite all of their experience with God, they didn't know him because they didn't "walk by faith". There's a lot in the congregations of churches around that think just because they've experienced the water from the rock, the overflow of others relationship with God, just because they were in proximity to the presence of God, they're good to go. But no, you have to know Him, and to know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to obey Him, and faith without action is dead.
*Obedience* shows that you've been transformed, that you have faith. And man, I wanna be a son. God is pleased with his sons and daughters because his sons and daughters walk by faith. They don't just love the presence. They walk in the presence day in and day out and are carriers of the presence.
Amen? The presence meaning the presence of God. Again, when you're born again, you're born of the spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside, and your spirit comes to life because now it's united with the Holy Spirit. And *Isaiah-11:2* says, the spirit of the Lord first for a reason.
You don't encounter and walk with and know Him as your Savior until He's your Lord. He's gotta be your Lord and Savior. When you surrender to his Lordship, then the Holy Spirit begins to or unifies and is in communion with you and you grow in the rest of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in your daily life. Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, and then the fear of the Lord, which is I care more about what you say than others think. I honor and give more weight to what you say than what I feel.
My I think my daughter Eden is a good example of the fear of the Lord. I'll give you an example. Just in her relationship with me. She has a fear of daddy that's healthy and holy. And that doesn't stop her from running up and snuggling because she knows her daddy loves her.
She's the first 1 of all of my kids to come and say, daddy, it's snuggle time. You need a snuggle. She'll come jump in my lap, give me big hugs, like, and when daddy says something to all of the kids, she does not want to disobey. And she will ensure like she she almost a little too much, concerned about making sure she gets her contributions done because we have contributions, kids are homeschooled, and so they do their schoolwork, but then they do their chores around the house and other things, and we call them contributions to the family because they're participating in the mission and vision of the family. She want I mean, she does not want to not do those because daddy said.
It's the it's it's a fear, a healthy honor. It's not she's not scared of daddy. That's shown by her desire to come all the time when I'm around and give me hugs and snuggle. But at the same time, she has an honor, a deep honor and respect for what I say. Makes sense?
That's the fear of the Lord. If you go about your business not caring what God says, you don't have a fear of the Lord. And that's dangerous because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is a deep honor and respect for his authority. When you surrender his lordship, you begin to learn about authority, and his kingdom is all about authority, which we'll get into today.
So I wanna walk by *faith* because that pleases my father. He's pleased with me as a son because I took the step of faith to surrender my life to him as Lord, and I grow in faith just like Jesus. Jesus learned obedience through suffering, but also it says He grew in favor with God and man. I want to grow in favor with my Father and with people because I'm learning to walk in *wisdom* and walk in relationship with him day in and day out. Amen?
Alright. Now it goes on, nevertheless, God was not pleased with them. Verse 5. With most of them, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. That's because they didn't walk by faith.
Proximity without relationship. Now these things occurred as an example to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. In the Corinthians series, went through these next, this list of 4 things, except we didn't talk about the fourth thing. That was the message that God had me skip until today. These examples.
Why? Because they're going to be *temptations* for everyone. You're not experiencing any temptation that's not common to man, and these are warnings so you can understand the temptations, See when they come, and stand by *faith* instead of by sight. Stand by His word. Faith comes by hearing His word.
Stand based on what He has spoken instead of what you see and feel. Amen? Okay. So here's the 4 things. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.
And as it was written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. What did they do? Their relationship with God was based on Moses. Moses was gone up the mountain for 40 days, and so they conformed God into what the image that they were comfortable with, to what they were used to from their past. They made him into a calf which looked a lot like the gods they used to worship in Egypt.
When things get hard in your life, don't conform Jesus into the image that you're used to, Until to the image of what you're comfortable for, or comfortable with, and go back to the way that you used to live, and make excuses that Jesus is okay with this. Make sense? It's a warning. Because everybody is going to be tempted to do that. Stand.
Know that he loves you. If you have fallen in these areas, fall forward, repent, get back up and keep walking. Amen? We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did. And in 1 day, 23000 of them died.
Sexual immorality is a *temptation* that everyone will experience, some more than others because maybe that was a weakness or a proclivity towards sin that they were born into. But you can be born again, a "new creation". Don't conform Jesus into the image of what you're comfortable with and excuse away your sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is any sex outside of marriage. And can I just say, most Christians out most single people are having too much sex?
And too much sex is any sex outside of marriage. Any. You don't have sex just because you think you're gonna marry that person 1 day. You don't have sex just because you really love them. You know, you don't have sex unless you're married.
Biblically, if Jesus is your Lord, otherwise, you're conforming him into your image of what you're comfortable with and what you like. *Repent*. Shift. How far is too far single people? If it arouses you, don't do it.
Understand? People are woah. Just telling you like it is. I wanna give you truth. I wanna save you from a lot of junk down the road.
Okay? So single people are having too much sex and any sex is too much. Married people are not having enough. The man in here is like, I like this church. It's important not to be taken advantage of, but wives, *1 Corinthians-7*, give your husband his conjugal rights.
Husbands, *1 Corinthians-7*, give your wives their conjugal rights because your body is not your own when you come into marriage. So to use your body as leverage is sin. And to take advantage of your spouse's body for selfishness is just as sinful. To manipulate based on scripture is evil. Love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of the other.
And if you're both doing that, you'll have the right amount of sex. Sorry, son. Anyway, verse 9. We should not test Christ as some of them did and were killed by snakes. The testing of Christ, if you remember, if you don't, I'm gonna remind you, that was *grumbling* and complaining about not having what they wanted when they wanted it.
Oh, we want the the leeks, and the potatoes, and steaks that we used to have in Egypt. This manna from heaven is not enough. But how often as Christians do we do the same thing? What God has blessed us with has become normal and familiar, so we dishonor it, and grumble and complain about what we don't have instead of being grateful for what we do. Right?
So don't test Christ in that way. That's a warning. We're all tempted to. Well, you'll all be tempted to, but a disciple is a disciplined follower of Jesus who has learned the discipline of gratitude, and honoring what's become normal in your life. That's been a gift from God.
Amen? It's important. And then there's the 1 that we didn't get to that we're gonna get to today. Verse 10, and do not grumble, it's a different type of grumbling, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. I definitely wanna don't wanna fall into that temptation, whatever that is.
We're gonna talk about it. But before we do, verse 11. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the culmination of the ages has come. Why is the culmination of the ages come on you? It's because Jesus died, rose again, and declared Tetelestai, "it is finished".
And he poured out his spirit on you, the spirit that all the prophets and and kings of the old that were following Jesus were prophesying forward to. You get to experience what they never did. You're experiencing the fullness of Christ today even before we walk with him in eternity. But I don't feel like that, but I don't you got more than you realize, and you get to participate in his divine nature through the promises of God, 2 Peter-1. As you renew your mind to the reality of what he's done.
Come on. That's awesome. So we take these warnings so that we're not fooled by what we see, instead of we we walk by faith by what he said. Amen? Amen.
And be careful too. *Faith* comes by hearing, which would imply faith goes by hearing too. You wanna walk by faith? Be careful what and who you listen to. Be careful what you put in your ears, what you're giving your time and attention to because it might be stealing your faith.
I wanna be 1 who has dedicated what I listen to to that which is holy. Constantly putting in my ears and my eyes that which is holy so that I can mature and grow at the proper pace instead of being stunted by my appetite for what's not holding. Amen? So these warnings, verse 12. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall.
So if you if there's seasons where you think, man, I'm I'm good. Just stay humble and realize you're good because Jesus is in you. But if you think you're good because you're so strong, pride comes before destruction, my friend. And that destruction is to keep you humble. So anytime that I'm walking strong and things are going great, I want to always recognize, wait a second.
It's not because I'm so strong, it's because Jesus is in me. I'm just a turtle on a fence post. God put me here, a farmer puts a turtle on the fence post, that's how he gets there. There's no other way. God put me here, and I know that I'm here because of him, so I'm staying humble, lest I fall off my post.
Amen? Amen. Alright. No temptation. The word for temptation is also test.
God doesn't tempt you, but he does test you. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, and "God is faithful". He will not let you be tempted or tested beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will always or also provide you a way out so that you can endure. So you know that old saying, God won't give you more than you can handle?
There's this whole like movement in the church, it's like, oh, you know, God, that's not true. No, it is. He won't He'll he'll give you more than your flesh can handle. He'll give you more than you can handle in and of yourself all day. I mean, He'll stretch you way beyond yourself to to teach you how to have *faith* in Him and trust His power.
But in Him, He won't give you more than you can handle. He won't give you more than your faith is ready to bear. But you can know if you're walking through it, then he's already trained you to be able to endure it. You just have to trust what he's already taught you and stand in freedom. Amen?
Okay. And then this little last little tagline verse 14. Therefore, my dear friends, "flee from idolatry". Because really all of those temptations are idolatry, putting something else over God. Worshiping something, giving your time and attention to something else instead of Him, whether that's women or men, whether that's your comfort, what whatever it is.
But let's let's dive in. You've got the reminder of what we walked through. Let's dive into 1 Corinthians-10:10. And do not grumble as some of them did, man, and were killed by the destroying angel. Let me take you to to what that's referencing.
It's Numbers-16. Like this is If God sent the destroying angel, then it's kind of a big deal. And it's a warning that all of you, myself included, will be tempted with. So don't fall. And if you fall and repent, get back up and keep walking.
Amen? It's referencing Numbers-16:41. It says, the next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, their leaders, saying, you have killed the Lord's people, they said. So this is this is *grumbling* against *God's* delegated authority and leadership. And it's a warning and it's a big deal because his kingdom is built on delegated authority.
Understanding how to healthily walk in *submission* to the mission that God's called you to is huge. God wouldn't let me preach it 2 months ago. But today's the day, which I'm excited about. And grumbling from the heart, they weren't the ones that committed the biggest sin. Corinth, Dathan, Habakkuk, they were the ones that committed the biggest sin, and we'll talk about it.
And they gathered 2 50 of the tribal leaders to go against Moses, and God put them to death, caused the the ground to open up and swallow them, and then burnt the 250 liters as fire from heaven. Gone. Because *rebellion* is evil. But the grumbling of the people from their hearts was just as bad and a plague opened up and God began to judge the people too. Now, God we're not under the old covenant, we're under the new covenant and Jesus has been judged, but the same sin is the same sin that people are tempted with today and it's no less dirty or ugly.
So we're warned about it so we don't fall into it. Amen? But praise God, Jesus took the judgment, the fire, and the ground opening up to to take him down and overcame it for us. Amen? So before we dive into all that happened there, because there's a lot, I think we have to understand biblical **healthy leadership**.
Because today, I'm I'm if I'm gonna dive into authority, you really you need to understand biblical healthy leadership because you're all called to be leaders. Every 1 of you is called God sees as a world changing leader. You are created by Him with certain gifts, talents, abilities to accomplish His purposes in the world of influence that He put you in. You might not be called to be a world leader like President Trump or you know, all of the authorities he's put in place over the many nations, but you are called to use the gifts, talents, and abilities he's placed in you to change your world. You are a culture changing, world changing leader.
And some people say, well, little ole me, I could never do it. Yes, you can. You have the Holy Spirit in you, and he wants to use you to do that. So you have to understand the place that he's put you in, the race he's called you to run, and how to be a world changing leader in that environment, that area of influence, and I promise, "faithful with a little" and God will give you more. Unfaithful with a little and God will take the little that he gave you and give it to somebody else.
That's harsh, pastor. No, it's truth. I wanna love you enough so that you understand truth, so you can walk it out and walk with him in the principles of the kingdom. If you try to walk outside principles of the kingdom, but still be a son or daughter of God, well praise the Lord, you'll be a son or daughter of God, but you'll miss out on the wisdom and blessings of walking in the culture of the kingdom. And maybe that was just ignorance.
I don't want you to be ignorant. Make sense? Alright. So healthy leadership. What does healthy leadership look like?
Who's that leadership guru? John Maxwell. He says, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. That's good. And there's authority too.
There's positions of leadership that God places and gives people authority. And with that position comes a certain amount of influence. Now, whether or not those people use it for healthy gain or for selfish gain is really up to them. God places people in authority. Let's look at Romans-13:1-2.
Let everyone be subject to governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. Everybody say, no authority. There is no authority except which God has established. Consequently, whoever rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Jeez.
Can I be honest? I did not like President Biden. But God put him in office. I did not agree with all of his policies, but God put him in office. As a Christian, I'm to stand against injustice, stand for justice, and stand for morality.
I'm to honor. Like in Peter it says, honor the emperor. Peter wrote that when the emperor was persecuting and killing Christians. And yet, Peter said honor the emperor. So, you know, I've had to repent for the jokes that I've said about President Biden.
Many of you probably need to. If you haven't already. Because dishonoring an *authority* is dishonor and will lead you to have a rebellious heart, and to grumble and complain following the same trap that the Israelites were sucked into, and it caused judgment. The warning that we're being warned about. Does that mean you don't stand against injustice?
No, you do. You stand against injustice, and you never follow an authority or a leader into moral sin. If an authority or leader tells you to murder somebody, you say no. If they tell you to worship the state, you say no and you worship Jesus. Just like Daniel stood against Nebuchadnezzar and was thrown in the lion's den at cost of my life.
Right? Yeah. Just because an authority is placed Authority doesn't mean approval. Just because someone has authority or is placed in a place of authority doesn't mean that God approves with everything they're doing. However, authority is important.
You know why? You know what the definition of sin is? Like if you were to just define sin, what what's the first things that come to your mind? A lot of people would say murder, lying, or other things. I I define I've defined sin in here as selfishness, really.
I'm choosing what I want instead of what God says, is disobedience. Yes. And, the Bible literally defines sin in 1 John-3:4. *1 John-3* verse 4, the Bible says, everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, **"sin is lawlessness"**.
*Rebellion*. Sin is rebellion. Sin is lawlessness. I'm doing what I want instead of what and nobody can tell me what to do. We celebrate that in America.
The Bible condemns it. I'm my own. You know what Satanism is? Satanism is not worshiping the devil. Satanism is making each individual their own sovereign.
I can do what I want when I want. Nobody can tell me what to do. *Satan* is the original lawless 1. Promoted himself to be like God, and it got him kicked out of heaven. That's why this warning is so great, and the destroying angel was sent to destroy until Moses stepped in the gap as a representation of Jesus to repent for the people.
Lawlessness. See authority is a big big deal in the kingdom of heaven, and being subject, once again, never follow an authority into sin. However, there are structures of authority that God has placed that is very important. Like husbands as the covering of their wives. Fathers and mothers as the covering of their children.
Leaders, elders, pastors as the covering of the church. Presidents as covering of nations. Governors as covering of states. God has instituted authorities. He's the 1 that set them up.
To rebel is to rebel against God. Because sin is lawlessness. You follow me? Now, let's talk about healthy leadership. Leadership, influence, and authority.
*Authority* is having influence over because of a position. Influence, I never want to lead because of position. No 1 should ever, just because I'm positioned, control, and keep, and hold down. That is not biblical leadership. Jesus said in Matthew-20, He explained what biblical leadership was.
*Matthew-20 verse 20, then the mother of Zebedee's sons, that's James and John, came to Jesus* with her sons, kneeling down and asked a favor of him. What is it you want? He asked. He already knew. She said, grant that 1 of these 2 sons of mine may sit at your right hand and the other at your left in the kingdom.
You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup that I'm gonna drink? We can, they answered. Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink this cup, meaning suffering and death. But to sit at my right hand or left hand is not for me to grant.
These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father. The Father sets up places of authority. The Father's created people to run the race that he's called them to run. Whether or not they run it is up to them. When the 10 heard about this, they were indignant.
They were ticked off. How dare you fight for position that might be mine? With the 2 brothers? You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Lord it over people outside of the kingdom of heaven, operating in the kingdom of this world.
You're a part of the kingdom of heaven because when you were born again, you became a king with authority delegated by Jesus. Jesus is the king of kings. Make sense? But if you operate according to the world, then you're operating according to the principles of the kingdom of this world. And those rulers *lord* over their subjects, those that they've been given influence over.
That's not how the kingdom operates, kingdom of God. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. Everybody say servant. Servant.
Whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Everybody say slave. Slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Leadership in the kingdom comes from serving.
What is serving? A servant, in the Greek is the word doulos. It's like a waiter or a waitress. A waiter and a waitress, what do they do? They carry their tray, thank you.
And they go around looking for who needs what they have. And they bring to others food and drink. They're giving them what they need. Make sense? That's what a servant, a kingdom servant does, and that is the way to leadership.
It's very practical. Think about this. In general, your mother, if you had a good mother, does she have today, does she have physical power over you? Trip, she does. But for the rest of you, does she have physical power over you?
No. Probably not. You've probably grown stronger than her. So she can't force you to do something. Right?
She can't make you do something, but yet if she asks you to do something, you'll say, absolutely, I'll do it for you. Why? Because she laid her life down to give you what you needed for your whole life. She wiped your butt. She fed you.
She changed your dirty diapers. Make sense? She sacrificed herself to give you what you need so that you can be the man or woman of God that you are today. And because of her sacrifice, she has influence with you. When she asks, you do it.
That's leadership in the kingdom. That's healthy leadership. It's not because of her position, although the Bible says honor your father and mother. Why? Because they're God given places of authority in your life.
You honor them, but the influence they have is because they served you. In the kingdom, God places people in places of authority that you honor the position. But really, their influence with you is because they've laid their life down for you. Not to give you what you want, but to give you what you need, to serve you. And so when they ask those people in your life, you say, I'll do it for you because you asked.
Why? Because somehow deep down, you know, they've laid their life down to give you what you needed. Amen? So you want to lead in the kingdom? Leaderships desiring leadership, the Bible said.
It's not a bad thing to desire leadership, but it's a bad thing to promote yourself to it because that's what Satan did. You might be called to it, but God is the 1 who places authority. And to promote yourself is to say I'm taking control of my destiny instead of letting God promote me. Instead, you make yourself in the form of a servant. What did Jesus do?
*Philippians-2*. How did Jesus lead? Watch this. Philippians-2. I didn't give this to the notes.
Verse 3, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in *humility* value others above yourselves. Not looking to your own interests, but to the interests of others. In your relationships, have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus. What was Jesus' mindset?
Well, it goes on to tell you. This famous passage. Who being in the very nature of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped or used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the nature of a servant. Being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
*Jesus* refused, even though he was in the very nature of God, equal with God. God in the flesh. He didn't count equality with the Father something to be grasped, something to go after. So what that looks like, in my relationships with you, I'm supposed to have the same mindset of Jesus. And your relationship with me, with each other, you're supposed to have the same mindset of Jesus.
Even though you're equal with me, and I'm equal with you, I'm not supposed to count equality with you something to be proven, something to be grasped. Instead, I'm supposed to take on the nature of a servant and "wash your feet" and giving you what you need. Make sense? In the same way, in husbands and wife, even though you're equal, you're supposed to take on the nature of a servant, washing their feet, giving them what they need. Because we're supposed to have the same mindset as that of Christ Jesus.
And what happened to Jesus is the same thing that will happen to you to the level of purpose that God has created you for. Jesus was then exalted. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every names, that at the name of Jesus every name should bow on heaven on earth and under earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. He gave him all authority over everything. Well, what did Jesus turn around and do?
He gave you the great commission, said all authority has been given to me, now go. He delegated authority for you to go out and "Lay your life down" to give others what they need, and as you serve, he promotes you to the places of your purpose in his time because he's the 1 that sets authority. But if you promote yourself, it's an act of rebellion. And promoting yourself is gossiping about your leaders. Isn't that what the Israelites did?
Who grumbled and complained? Wives, you're grumbling and complaining about your husband to your friends? You're doing the same thing the Israelites did and were destroyed by the destroying angel. Husbands, you're grumbling and complaining about your boss? Stop.
Stand for righteousness. Stand for judgement justice. But submission, the Holy Spirit leads us to be submissive. Come under the place that he's put us. Not not to be manipulated, not to be abused, but to be a reflection of the kingdom of heaven in that place.
Healthy leadership lays its life down for the sake of others. So that, like Jesus said, you'll do the same things I do and even greater. Healthy leadership, the mindset is you'll do the same things I do and even greater. It's giving others what they need even if that means that the other will surpass them 1 day because they have a similar purpose or an even greater purpose in the kingdom. Because it's not about my purpose anyway.
It's not about your purpose. It's just about being obedient to the race he's called me to run while he's called me to run it. Amen? So, to wrap up, let's go talk about what happened in Numbers-16. Because now we understand what healthy leadership looks like.
Verse 1, Korah son of Ezra, the son of Korath, the son of Levi, and the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, became insolent. And rose up against Moses, with them were 250 Israelites, well known to the community leaders who have been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron, and said to them, you have gone too far. Now listen to this, Remember self promotion? *Jesus* did not account count equality with God something to be grasped, but instead took on the form of a servant.
The whole community is holy, every 1 of them, and the Lord is with them. Why do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly? See what they said sounded holy. It sounded good, and it's true. New covenant, everybody has the same Holy Spirit.
Everybody's holy. But if you are trying to promote yourself to be equal with that, you're out of the character and nature of Jesus. Instead, we're to be confident in who He says we are, but take on the form of a servant until God promotes. And so, like what they said sounded good, but it was from a heart of rebellion, and because it was from a heart of rebellion, they were deceived and acting like Satan. When you operate from a heart of rebellion and self promotion, you're acting like Satan who promoted himself and got kicked out of heaven.
Instead, coming under and honoring *authority* is major. Now, what happened? They heard this, they fell Moses heard it, fell face down meek. He wrote it, meekest of all the earth, in all the earth, but himself. But actually, it was the Holy Spirit right through him.
Never mind. Then he said to Korah and all of his followers, in the morning, the Lord will show who belongs to Him who is holy, and He will have that person come near Him. So basically, read number 16. It's pretty crazy. God judged them, wiped out all rebellion as He does, pruned them, done.
Again, thank you *Jesus* that we're a part of the new covenant. But 1 Corinthians-10:10, this is a warning so that we don't fall in the same temptation. Then what does it say? After all of this happened, God was the 1 who judged them. God was the 1 who opened up the earth and caused Korah, and Abiram, and Dathan, and all of their families to fall down to the pit to hell alive.
Harsh. Fast forward. God was the 1 that sent fire out for the 250 liters and burned them up right there. Boom. It was God.
Verse 41, the next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, you have killed the Lord's people. You know what happened? And this is the the verse that 1 Corinthians-10:10 is worrying about. What happened is the Israelite community had been listening to those 250 leaders. They had been listening to Korah, Abaram, and Dathan, and what they would listen to changed how they saw, and they weren't even able to see rightly.
They weren't able to see that God did it. Instead, they blamed Moses and grumbled against him, and fell under the same judgment because grumbling is a condition of the heart. Grumbling against leadership and against authority is showing a rebellious heart, and God judged them the same way. Until Moses stood in the gap and prayed. It's my warning, Be careful.
Understand authority because his kingdom works on authority, and the reason it does is because it causes unity. Think about this. The husband is the head of the wife. Why? Because his kingdom works on authority, and his kingdom causes unity.
People like, well, I'm only gonna do what the Holy Spirit says. Isn't that the same heart as Nathan, and Byram, and Corinth? And We all hear the Holy Spirit. It's the same heart. It sounds good, but it's evil.
Sounds good, but it's evil. Watch this. If a husband, who's the head of the wife, and the wife are praying about what to do, and they both think that they've heard the Holy Spirit, but they And this has happened in our marriage. With They On this certain decision, they're in opposite directions. They both think they heard the Holy Spirit.
What do you do? Somebody said, well go pray again. Sure. Go pray again. And no matter what, they can't get on the same page.
What happens? There's a reason that there's **levels of authority** that God delegates. It's because it causes unity. Without authority and submission to authority, there would be no unity. Everybody thinks that they've heard right, and I'm I'm in sin if I don't obey this, and so there's no unity in the body of Christ.
Wait, wife is supposed to submit, come under the husband, so that there can be unity in the family. And so now there's unity moving forward, and if the husband got it wrong, God disciplines the husband because the wife trusted God, because it was God who delegated the authority over her anyway. And so by coming under the husband, the wife is trusting God, not the husband. He's trusting she's trusting God to be her defender. And so she's taken the weight off of herself and put it on her covering, and if the covering gets it wrong, God disciplines him.
Now watch this. In a business, it's very practical. In a business, let's say a large corporation, you have the people that are working hourly, you know, the contractors and other things. Let's see let's say above them, have like the staff. Let's say you have some executive staff.
Let's say, then you have the vice president and the president. The people, the contractors don't have vision for the company. And if they're complaining about the way that the staff and executive staff are doing things, they're complaining from a place of no vision. They have the vision that for what they've been delegated to do. Same thing.
The staff don't have the vision of the executive team. The executive team don't have the vision of the vice president, and the vice president doesn't have the vision of the founder. It's just natural in a company. So they might complain about what's happening until they get to their where they have vision for, complain about the CEO. He's running this this way, and he's running it that way.
You know, and it's simply because they don't have the same perspective, because they're operating at a different level. So on a mountain, it's kind of like if the contractors and staff are still below the tree line, they can't see what's going on. Then the executive team is right at the tree line, but they still can't really see too far. And then the vice president is up here, and the president is up here. The president can see it all.
Doesn't mean that he makes all the right choices, it just he has a different perspective. In the kingdom, it's the same way. When you've been delegated authority, you have vision for the level of authority that has been delegated to you. And if you try to judge those with a higher level authority that God has given more vision because he's given them more authority, you're judging from a place of no vision. You're not trusting God who delegated the authority over you to take care of you.
Instead, you're taking it into your own hands the same way that Satan did. So understanding *authority* and why will keep you from making the same mistakes the Israelites did, and grumbling and complaining about what they didn't understand, because they didn't have the level of covering delegated to Moses, so they complained about stuff that they didn't have vision for. They might have been operating in the wisdom of God for what they knew, but because they didn't have the vision delegated by God, God didn't give them wisdom for this. So they're judging people based on something they're not ready to judge for. Make sense?
This is a *temptation* that everybody, everyone will be tempted with in your growth in the kingdom. And we're a leadership development crucible, Real Church is. I believe all of you are leaders. So at some point, you're think I did it wrong. You're probably gonna get offended, and I might have.
I'm not perfect. And I'd say, man, if if I'm going opposite of what scripture says, let's talk about it. If I'm leading you into sin, sexual immorality or murder or other things, bruh, rebuke me hard. Please. But I challenge you, if you wanna operate in the fullness of what God has for you, in every in your marriage, in your job, and you put the principles of the kingdom into practice in the the secular area, watch.
Faithful with a little, God will give you more. Watch how it blesses you. But if you operate according to the world and start holding everybody down and questioning everything, you know, there was a study done, a secular study where hundreds there's I forget the exact amount in the pool. It was like 100, 1000, or 1,500. Anyway, they had CEOs, and these these job applicants came in.
And half of them were told, you can't trust this boss. And the other half of them were told, you can trust this boss. None of the CEOs hired the ones that said they that had been told they can't trust the boss. Because we can discern. People can discern when somebody doesn't trust them.
And you will never follow who you don't trust. In any area that you have trouble following God, you probably distrust him, his goodness. Make sense? Every mama knows when their children don't trust her. Every dad knows.
So learning to trust and grow in the places where you have an honor *authority* will keep you from falling into the warning that Paul gave the Israelites or gave us based on what the Israelites did. Because, man, I don't wanna fall into idolatry, conforming Jesus into my own image, what I'm comfortable with. I don't wanna fall into sexual immorality. Those are obvious. Man, I I definitely don't wanna fall into grumbling and complaining about every little thing, not recognizing what God's done for me.
But, man, I I also, the 1 that's kinda harder for Americans. I don't wanna constantly be complaining about leaders that He placed over me as a test for me. Instead, I wanna learn to honor and come under so that I can carry the same authority 1 day if that's part of my race. Amen? So with that, you'll never rightly see authority until first, you surrender to Jesus' authority as Lord.
And so, if you've never done that, I would encourage you, look into Christ. He's worth following. See, in surrender, there's freedom. Never seen this. It's a shoe.
It's created in the image of my foot, but it's not my foot. And if it tries to live life apart from my foot, how it wants and how it feels, assuming it could, it would never be able to do what it was created to do. Run, dance, jump, play. It would think that it's living because it's alive if it was. But it would be terribly unfulfilled.
But when it *surrenders* to the 1 is who in whose image it was created, full surrender. Now, it's empowered by the 1 in whose image it was created to run, dance, jump, and do everything it was created to do because in surrender, there's **freedom and fulfillment** and empowerment. In the same way, in honoring, there's freedom and fulfillment and empowerment. You want a healthy marriage? Husbands?
Lead like Jesus. Lay your life down for her to do the same things you do and even greater. Lay your life down to give her what she needs, not necessarily what she wants, what she needs. Wives, come under and honor and be a "helpmate that helps" him to accomplish all God's called him to do. See, there's no less than there.
Husband laying down his wife, his life for his wife to do all God's created her to do. Her being the helpmate, helping him to create do all he's created to do. But yet, there's still **healthy authority** because God created the kingdom with authority. And to grumble and complain against it is rebellion. That's what Satan does.
Amen? I'm done. Let's do this. Let's have the prayer team come up. If you need ministry, or you need to surrender to Jesus as Lord, don't leave.
If you want healing, or deliverance, need ministry in any way, please come and ask for it. Jesus, this past Friday night, God moved in supernatural words of knowledge and miracles, and people's shoulders were healed and slipped discs and all kinds of stuff. Like healing healing is is a part of the kingdom. You need ministry in any way. Other than that, I love you guys.
I'm thankful to get to be here and get to be your pastor. Lord bless these amazing people that have a great Sunday. They need ministry. I pray they don't leave. If they need to do business with you, I just pray they sit there until till they get it done.
Otherwise, I pray they have a blast today. Let them have fun. In Jesus' name. Amen.